2010-10-01, 07:34 PM
Stop Forum Spam is wonderful. It stops so many spammers. Yet still, some get through. I have my boards set to admin approval because of that.
I like to set 'Location' as a required field by personal preference because it is somewhat relevent to my particular forums.
Lately I have been getting new registrations that look "clean" when I check their User name, email and IP address. The only thing that raised an eyebrow was the Location field. They put a 5-digit number there. At first I thought it was a zip code. In the next couple of days I had several more with the same scenario. Nothing else in common except that attribute.
I normally delete spam accounts, but after the first couple, I started banning them instead so I can report them once I know for sure they are spammers. All I know is that they will not be spammers on MY boards if I can help it.
I had a couple of them post. They make brainless, semi-relevant replies to off-topic threads. They don't do anything "bad", however they do not respond to my post moderation messages. None have contacted me about being banned and being called a spammer, so I guess the shoe fits. I let one go for a day or two. He posted goofy replies the first day and then ...... nothing.
My guess is that this person or group is trying to establish users, then go back later and add links in sigs and junk like that.
I am just posting this as a heads-up. I am open to comments, though.
I like to set 'Location' as a required field by personal preference because it is somewhat relevent to my particular forums.
Lately I have been getting new registrations that look "clean" when I check their User name, email and IP address. The only thing that raised an eyebrow was the Location field. They put a 5-digit number there. At first I thought it was a zip code. In the next couple of days I had several more with the same scenario. Nothing else in common except that attribute.
I normally delete spam accounts, but after the first couple, I started banning them instead so I can report them once I know for sure they are spammers. All I know is that they will not be spammers on MY boards if I can help it.
I had a couple of them post. They make brainless, semi-relevant replies to off-topic threads. They don't do anything "bad", however they do not respond to my post moderation messages. None have contacted me about being banned and being called a spammer, so I guess the shoe fits. I let one go for a day or two. He posted goofy replies the first day and then ...... nothing.
My guess is that this person or group is trying to establish users, then go back later and add links in sigs and junk like that.
I am just posting this as a heads-up. I am open to comments, though.
I tend to just ban them.
